10.1.04

Aidan?

Via Matthew Yglesias, I see that the top boys' names in 2003 was the trio of Aidan, Jaden, and Caden. Sadly Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur didn't make the cut. What really surprised me, though, was how many of the names are ones I would have associated with the opposite gender. Morgan*, Cameron, and Addison are now boys, while Riley, Mackenzie, and Taylor are girls. I don't have any philosophical principle about gender-shifting names (though there's the practical consideration that our antiquated title and pronoun system requires us to know the subject's gender), but it was surprising that my instincts would differ from those of so many parents.

*It took me a while to get used to the fact that Morgan Leah in The Sword of Shannara was male.